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THE INDEPENDENT ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER WITH LOCAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS
FRIDAY 5th MAY TO THURSDAY 18th MAY 2017 TV GUIDE
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PAGES 25 -32
EDITION 575 FORTNIGHTLY SUPPLEMENT F
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PAGES 49 -56
guide
Hoteliers warning over private holiday rentals Court ruling will lead to adverse changes, says Ashotel
H
OTELIERS in the Canary Islands are warning that a new court directive allowing more flexibility over private holiday rentals could be bad news for the industry.
They say the Supreme Court’s ruling over vacational rentals will change the entire model of the current tourism setup and lead to “a fall in employment, quality standards and security” among others. Ashotel says it is very concerned about the changes which will allow private lettings in tourist zones, not just the residential areas as before. The Supreme Court also ruled that individual rooms in properties could be rented out for holidays, not just the entire property. It effectively means that there can be authorised private rentals within tourist zones and individual rooms provided all the other rules and regulations are adhered to, such as standards etc. Ashotel has warned against what it sees as the adverse effects on the current model of tourist success which, it says, has worked so well over the past decades. “The proliferation of this new modality can affect the classic tourism system that has been developing in the archipelago since a few decades ago and which has had such good results for the well-being of the Canarian society. This model has been based, among many other aspects, on the separation of residential and tourist land uses, a philosophy that Ashotel has defended from the beginning,” says the group. The hotel employers’ association had been anaylsing the court rulings with its legal representatives. It believes tourism in future will be directed towards the rental of holiday homes in tourist areas which would require fewer standards of excellence, security and employment. “If the future tourist promotion is directed towards the holiday home, this circumstance will have a direct impact on the volume of employment generated by the accommodation sector in the Canary Islands and which today employs some 65,000 people,” says Ashotel. The group says it would be totally unfair if two different rooms in the same property, offered by different
owners, presented different standards as there would be no template in force. It is also worried that this new system will not contribute financially or in terms of jobs to the archipelago where the tourist product is the main economic engine of the Canaries, accounting for more than 30 per cent of its gross domestic product.
Police raids for crack, heroin and cocaine peddling
BRITISH DIVER PULLED FROM WATER
A
British woman was taken to hospital in a very serious condition after suffering a near drowning in the north of Tenerife.
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OLICE in Tenerife have arrested five people for drug trafficking after dismantling a major crack, heroin and cocaine network.
Three raids were carried out, two in Santa Cruz and the third in Candelaria, including a rural finca in the capital. “This operation dismantles a point of production and distribution of narcotic substances - crack, heroin and cocaine,” said a police spokesman. “In total, a large number of doses of these substances have been seized, which were already prepared to be sent to the final consumer, in addition to cash, two simulated pistols, machetes, and other objects of dubious origin”. The investigation, involving officers from the Canary police and local police, began in June after several people were stopped carrying narcotic substances. They were also able to identify the various places where drugs were being consumed on a regular basis. Those arrested for drug possession at the time all indicated they had bought them in the Santa Cruz area. This information led to the arrest of the five for regularly selling cocaine, crack and heroin.
The woman, aged 48, was diving off the popular beach of Playa de Radazul in El Rosario when she got into trouble. The alert was raised in the late morning when the 112 emergency control centre received a call saying a diver had been pulled from the water with signs of drowning. SUC staff performed basic and advanced resuscitation after discovering she was in cardiac arrest and managed to regain a pulse. She was stabilised and taken on to hospital in Candelaria.